This is about rock piles and stone mound sites in New England. A balance is needed between keeping them secret and making them public. Also arrowheads, stone tools and other surface archaeology.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Nutting Rd - Groton MA

For the most part the woods of Groton are a disappointment but I have found exceptions to the rule on the fringes of the town - up against the border with Dunstable and, here, up against Littleton and Ayer. I like to make fun of Groton, claiming that the only interesting parts are not really in Groton.

Anyway, at the end of the paved part of Nutting Rd there is a small corner of larger area that does have a few rock pile sites, and I never visited this corner before. So I went out, over the weekend, stepped into the woods, and found a small rock pile site:Pretty minor. This was the nicest pile:Here it is again, in relation to the first above:The whole area, as with most of Groton, looks to have been quarried. But unlike the rest of the town, it seems someone came back later:Another view, so we can look at the shapes of these little rocks on the boulder:Later on, a bit further west, I saw this newly constructed pile and thought it was probably a modern "folly".But it was adjacent to other, more beaten down piles. So it is unclear. I always had the sense that the stone ceremonies were quite recent in this part of town.

This last group included a couple of gap piles:Finally, a nice wedged split:That is it for the week.